Computer Science Education Week Launches in Boulder

Boulder, Colo. – December 8, 2014 – Computer Science Education Week (CSED), a national initiative to promote computer science education across the country, launches in Boulder today and continues through Saturday, December 13. The week features free interactive, educational activities and programs focused on computer science for students grades K-12, parents, and educators.

Zayo Group, Galvanize, SendGrid, Techstars, Modular Robotics, and many other Boulder companies, educators and technologists have come together to organize the week’s activities, which are designed to encourage the next generation of designers, developers, engineers & innovators. The programs will show students the depth and variety of careers and industries related to computer science, and highlight potential career paths students might consider in the future.

The week’s events begin at 4pm on Monday at SendGrid with an early bird kick-off organized to accommodate family schedules and bedtimes. The official kick-off celebration will follow at 6pm at Galvanize Boulder, and will be hosted by Galvanize and Maker Boulder. The event will celebrate the start of CSED and enable attendees to learn more about the week’s programs. Representative Jared Polis will deliver a special message, and his Colorado Chief of Staff, Lisa Kaufmann, will be in attendance.

Other events throughout the week include Intro to Coding, Build an App with Bitsbox and Boomtown, Computer Science Unplugged with Modular Robotics and Zayo, Scratch Hackathon, Robots: Code in Action, and the First Ever CoderDojo Boulder. Community members interested in attending can view all events and RSVP through www.csed.co.

“Zayo looks forward to working with the Boulder community and our partners to support the first annual Computer Science Education Week in Boulder history,” said Dan Caruso, co-founder, chairman, and CEO at Zayo. “Boulder is home to so many innovative startups and technology companies and this is a great opportunity to work together to emphasize the importance of computer science education in our community.”

“Computer science education promotes logic, problem-solving, and creativity – all skills that are valued by today’s innovative businesses,” said Emilie Kintner, community director at Galvanize. ”It’s important to provide students with the opportunity to learn computer science early-on, so they can start to innovate and eventually become leaders of the increasingly tech focused workforce.”

Based in Boulder, Colo., Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ZAYO) is a publicly traded company that provides comprehensive Bandwidth Infrastructure services in over 300 markets throughout the US and Europe. Zayo delivers a full suite of lit services and dark fiber products to wireline and wireless customers, data centers, Internet content providers, high-bandwidth enterprises, and government agencies across its robust 81,000 route mile network. The company also offers 37 carrier-neutral colocation facilities across the US and France. Please visit www.zayo.com for more information about Zayo and its fiber solutions.